Photo Supplied: Sarah Tedder. Retrieved from abc.net.au
On the face of it, bicycles should be a great way to get around on Thursday Island, or “TI”, in the Torres Strait.
The 3.5-square-kilometre tropical island has a designated cycleway and most things are a five to 10-minute ride away.
There is no public transport and fuel prices — $2.55 a litre for unleaded — are among the highest in the country.
But after moving her young family to TI from New South Wales in 2023, Sarah Tedder was struck by the lack of people pedalling around.
“As I was riding around with my kids, I just wasn’t seeing many other bikes at all,” she said.
It turned out bicycles just weren’t a thing on TI.
There was no bike shop on the island and shipping them from Cairns, the nearest mainland city more than 1,000 kilometres away, was expensive.
After surveying community members nearly a year ago, Ms Tedder found while some kids had a bike, it was a different story for adults, with many relying on taxis to get their children to school or run errands.